1993 in Music: The Wrap-Up

Nineteen ninety-three was a pretty good year for music, and certainly a much better year for No. 1 hits than 1992 was. We reviewed each of the 10 songs that ascended to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1993 as part of our ’90s No. 1s Revisited series, starting with “A Whole New World,” and overall they’re good, and relatively palatable to modern ears.

There was a bit of a chasm in 1993 between popular singles and popular albums. A look at the latter reveals an extraordinarily diverse array of acts: Nirvana, Janet Jackson, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Garth Brooks and U2 all had No. 1 albums in 1993. The music-consuming public was walking away from Pop and Adult Contemporary (not completely, but to some extent) and splintering into five camps: Alternative, R&B, Hip-Hop, Country and Rock. Each of these genres was emerging or reinventing itself in 1993 and would have huge influence over the industry in 5-10 years to come. Meanwhile, many of the Pop/Adult Contemporary acts that had been wildly popular just two years prior (e.g., Wilson Phillips, Roxette, Tara Kemp, Color Me Badd, Paula Abdul, Amy Grant, New Kids on the Block) had been put out to pasture, and would never re-emerge to their same level of success.

As is the case every year, 1993 had loads of great music that didn’t top the charts. Here are 126 of the best songs from 1993 that didn’t hit No. 1. Check them out sometime! Like right now on this playlist!